Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 March 2020 | 12(4): 15436–15442
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893
(Print)
doi: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5680.12.4.15436-15442
#5680 | Received 05 January 2020 | Final
received 11 February 2020 | Finally accepted 07 March 2020
A
new species of shieldtail
snake (Reptilia: Squamata: Uropeltidae)
from Kolli Hill complex, southern Eastern Ghats,
peninsular India
S.R. Ganesh 1 & N.S. Achyuthan
2
1 Chennai Snake Park, Rajbhavan Post, Raj Bhavan post,
Guindy, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600020, India.
2 Centre for Ecological
Sciences, Indian Institute of Sciences, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560012, India.
1 snakeranglerr@gmail.com
(corresponding author), 2 peltopelor@gmail.com
ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:A6678CAD-12ED-4AE6-ABBD-2083E3985184
Editor:
Gernot Vogel, Heidelberg,
Germany. Date
of publication: 26 March 2020 (online & print)
Citation: Ganesh, S.R. & N.S. Achyuthan
(2020). A
new species of shieldtail snake (Reptilia: Squamata:
Uropeltidae) from Kolli
Hill complex, southern Eastern Ghats, peninsular India. Journal of Threatened
Taxa 12(4): 15436–15442. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5680.12.4.15436-15442
Copyright:
© Ganesh & Achyuthan 2020. Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and
distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the
author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: None.
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Author
details: Dr. S.R. Ganesh
is working as Deputy Director & Scientist at the Chennai Snake Park,
conducting research on reptiles and amphibians of southern India. His research
themes include documenting diversity of under-explored eco-regions, updating
and refining species characterizations and elucidating modern day distribution
patterns with respect to southern India’s herpetofauna. Achyuthan N. Srikanthan is currently
working with the Indian Institute of Science, studying the ecomorphology
and evolutionary osteology and specialized integument microstructure characterisation of the amphibian and reptile groups.
Author
contribution: SRG conceived and diagnosed the new
species and led the manuscript writing. NSA conducted the field surveys and
roadkill specimen collections, examined the type specimens and scored
morphological details. SRG diagnosed the new species against the comparative
materials’ morphology that he had gathered. Both the authors equally
contributed in fine tuning and refining the draft and approved the final
version.
Acknowledgements: We are grateful to our respective organisations for
encouraging our research activities – the Executive Chairman and Board of
Trustees of the Chennai Snake Park Trust (CSPT), and the KS Lab, Drs. Kartik Shanker, S.P.
Vijayakumar and all the lab members at the Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES,
IISc) Bangalore. NSA thanks the Tamil Nadu Forest Dept. for granting permission
for the field study and roadkill specimen collection. We thank Mr. Srikanthan N.V. for all his help and inputs during field
survey. We thank Mr. Omkar Adhikari of the Bombay Natural History Society
(BNHS, Mumbai, India) for vouchering and registering the type specimens and
further assistance and support to NSA during his visits to BNHS. SRG thanks Dr. T.S. Sridhar, the then Principal Secretary &
Commissioner of Museums, Madras Govt. Museum (MAD), Chennai, Tamil Nadu for
permitting access to material under their care. We sincerely thank Drs. Patrick David (MNHN, Paris, France) and Gernot Vogel
(Society for S.E.Asian Herpetology, Heidelberg,
Germany) for their lucid review comments that improved our text.
Abstract: We describe a new species of shieldtail (uropeltid) snake, Uropeltis
rajendrani sp. nov.,
from the Kolli Hill complex of the southern Eastern
Ghats in Tamil Nadu, India. The new
species belongs to the U. ceylanica group and
is differentiated from related species in having 16–17:16–17:15–16 dorsal scale
rows; 145–158 ventral scales; 8–11 pairs of subcaudals; dorsum uniform brown,
anteriorly powdered with yellow mottling; venter brown, scales outlined with
yellow. This endemic species with a
restricted range is known only from atop Kolli Hill
complex, inhabiting higher elevation (> 900m) evergreen forests, where it is
the only known member of this genus.
Keywords: Allopatric species, endemism, isolated
massif, Uropeltis rajendrani
sp. nov., Western Ghats.
Abbreviations: CESS—Centre for Ecological
Sciences / Snakes;
CSPT—Chennai Snake Park
Trust; BNHS—Bombay Natural History
Society; MAD—Madras Government Museum Chennai.
Introduction
Subterranean animals often top the list of undocumented and little-known
fauna. Small, unassuming, burrowing
snakes such as the shieldtail snakes of the family Uropeltidae Müller, 1832 deservedly fall in the list of
under-researched animals. This is the only
snake family endemic to the Indian subcontinent (McDiarmid
et al. 1999; Wallach et al. 2014) and is surmised to be an evolutionary
radiation (Bossuyt et al. 2004; Ganesh 2015). Pyron et al. (2016) provided the latest
treatment to this group, decades after a previous detailed study by Rajendran
(1985). This family consists of seven
genera, of which the genus Uropeltis (type
genus) is the most diverse and widespread in the Indian peninsula (Beddome 1886; Rajendran 1985; Whitaker & Captain 2004;
Pyron et al. 2016).
Until recently, the distribution of the whole genus as such remained
unclear, as new studies found that it is restricted to the Indian peninsula and
is absent from Sri Lanka (Pyron et al. 2013, 2016). The alpha-taxonomy of the earliest described
species in this genus—Uropeltis ceylanica Cuvier, 1829—is still unsettled and
obscure. Gower et al. (2008) and Ganesh
et al. (2014) partly resolved the taxonomic complexities in this species
complex by reviving subjective junior synonyms as valid taxa, thereby
uncovering cryptic diversity in this group.
Just a year ago, a new species of Uropeltis
was discovered (Jins et al. 2018). In this work, we describe a new Uropeltis from one of the emerging centers of herpetofaunal endemism
– the southern Eastern Ghats (Aengals & Ganesh
2013; Ganesh & Arumugam 2016; Ganesh et al. 2018).
Materials and Methods
This paper is based on the examination of three preserved specimens as
well as five wild, uncollected topotypic specimens of
the species in question, documented in the field (also see Ganesh &
Arumugam 2016). All photos were taken
using Nikon D 7000 and Canon Power Shot SX-130-IS model high resolution digital
cameras. We recorded morphological
details like scalation, measurements and colour patterns with the help of a
magnifying hand lens (5X optical zoom).
The type series comprises solely road kills that were later identified
to be of this new species. We measured
the preserved specimens using Mitutoyo dial vernier calipers (LC 0.1mm) except for snout-vent length that was
measured with a standard measuring tape (LC 1mm). We followed Smith (1943) for definition and
terminology of morphological characters, except for ventral scales for which
Gower & Ablett (2006) counting method was followed. Where damaged, the adjacent coastal scale
rows were used as proxies for counting ventral scales in the two
paratypes. We provide comparisons and
differential diagnosis based on our series of preserved voucher specimens in collections
at various museums (see Appendix 1) and also on our perusal of original
description papers and subsequent taxonomic treatises (see literature
cited).
Taxonomy
Uropeltis rajendrani sp. nov.
(Image 1a–k)
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:B86EB241-587F-46CD-8EC0-783370465334
Uropeltis cf.
ceylanica (nec
Cuvier, 1829) – Ganesh & Arumugam 2016
Holotype: BNHS 3559 an adult male, August 2019, a relatively undamaged specimen
found dead on a road, in Bodhamalai, Tamil Nadu
State, India, coll. N.S. Achyuthan & N.V. Srikanthan.
Paratypes: BNHS 3560 and BNHS 3561, trampled adults, found dead
on a road. Same data as of holotype.
Etymology: Named in honour of Dr. Maria
Viswasam Rajendran (2 Nov 1916–6 Aug 1993), ‘MVR’ for
short, for his exhaustive studies on shieldtail
snakes in Tamil Nadu, next only to Richard Henry Beddome
and Frank Wall. Not only was he a professor of zoology at the St. Joseph’s
College Palayamkottai (Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu) but
also the director of the Madras (now Chennai) Snake Park (Chennai, Tamil Nadu)
during the early 1980s.
Common name: Rajendran’s Shieldtail
snake.
Type locality: Bodhamalai Hills near Salem
and Namakkal District border, overlooking Panamarathupatti Town (11.535˚N 78.221˚E; 1,070m), Tamil
Nadu State, peninsular India.
Diagnosis: A species of Uropeltis
from the Kolli Hill complex, characterized by having
the following combination of characters: (1) caudal shield truncate, with a
distinct thickened circumscribed concave disc; (2) part of rostral visible from
above not distinctly longer than its distance from frontal; (3) rostral scale
partially separating nasal scales; (4) snout obtusely rounded; (5) eye diameter
3/4th that of ocular shield; (6) dorsal scale rows
16–17:16–17:15–16; (7) ventral scales 145–158; (8) subcaudal scales 8–11 pairs;
(9) dorsum deep brown, unpatterned, anteriorly with a
few yellow speckles; (10) venter yellow, each scale edged with brown.
Description of holotype
Measurements (in mm, on the left side): Snout-vent length 221mm; tail length 13mm; head length
7.60mm; head width 3.85mm; head depth 3.09mm; body width 5.92mm; vertical
eye-diameter 0.45 mm; horizontal eye-diameter 0.41mm; eye-lip distance 0.45mm;
eye-nostril distance 1.37mm; eye-rostrum distance 2.29mm; interocular distance
2.32mm; internarial distance 1.15mm; snout-parietal distance 6.10mm; posterior
end of rostral to posterior end of parietal distance 4.75mm; tail shield length
8.17mm; tail shield width 3.95mm; tail shield depth 2.60mm; parietal scale
length 1.70mm; parietal scale width 1.12mm; frontal scale length 2.4mm; frontal
scale width 1.32mm; ocular scale length 1.72mm; prefrontal scale length 1.45mm;
midbody ventral scale width 2.50mm; midbody basal coastal scale width
1.23mm.
Scalation: Rostral visible from above, smaller than nasal, not
completely separating nasals; nasals in contact with one another posteriorly, prefrontals subequal in size to nasal and ocular scales,
not in contact with rostral; nostril piercing nasal scales; nasal scales
divided by rostral anteriorly but in contact with each other posteriorly; prefrontals subequal to frontal, slightly larger than
nasals and oculars; frontal longer than broad, smaller than parietal; parietals
large, largest of all head scales; supralabials 4, 4
(left, right), 1st and 2nd ones small, 3rd
below eye, 4th the largest; infralabials 3,4 (left, right),
elongate, 1st pair slightly curved anteriorly; mental scale small,
subequal to 1st infralabial, but as wide as long; body scales
imbricate, cycloid; dorsally around body in 17:16:16 rows (one head length
after neck: at midbody: one head length before vent); ventrals
148, angulate laterally; cloacal scale divided, each part larger than a dorsal
scale; subcaudals 11 pairs + 1 terminal scale; tail shield distinctly truncate
above, concave, clearly circumscribed and ridged; covered with bi- and
tri-carinate thickened scales; 11 scales across the length and 5 across the
width of the tail shield.
Colouration: Dorsum deep brown, rather uniform and unpatterned for the most part, except near neck where it is speckled with yellow spots;
venter rich brown each ventral scale and abutting rows of last coastal scales
more or less fully bordered with yellow outlines, giving an overall
brown-mottled appearance; a pair of yellow stripes extending from last supralabial scale till the anterior 1/3rd of the
body, across the first blotch near the neck; cloacal scale and subcaudal scales
orange with smaller blackish-brown spots.
Hemipenis:
Everted; organ short (3mm), and fairly stout (1.92mm); extending up to 2nd
subcaudal scales; unilobed, not forked at tip; lobe head (2.00mm) wider than
pedicel (1.37mm), sulcal lip rounded, spinose with
tiny flounces, pedicel in asulcate view plain and
smooth; in sulcate view, sulcus spermaticus feebly
visible as a reddish groove, extending down to the base from the lobe
head.
Dentition: Maxillary (upper jaw) teeth – 8/8 (L/R); Dentary
(lower jaw) teeth – 10/9 (L/R). No
diastema visible; all teeth present in sockets; teeth apparently equal in size
and shape.
Variation: Paratypes (n=2) are topotypic
specimens that were more damaged road kills than the holotype, permitting fewer
variables to be scored. In general,
agreeing with the holotype and showing the following intraspecific variation:
dorsal scale rows: 17:16:16; ventrals: 145, 147;
subcaudals: 11 pairs; snout-vent length: 163, 183mm, tail length: 12, 13.5mm;
body width: 7.07, 7.74 mm (trampled specimens); head length: 7.84, 7.79mm; head
width: 5.83, 5.91mm; interocular distance: 2.05, 2.14mm; internarial distance:
2.04, 1.89mm.
Field observations (also see Ganesh & Arumugam
2016): The new species was sighted in and around the
type locality and in other parts of the higher slopes (> 900m) with adequate
vegetation cover of Kolli Hill complex of Salem and Namakkal. This species
has previously been sighted from Semmedu, Solakkadu, Kuzhivalavu, Seekuparai, Thenur Nadu, Selur Nadu, Gundur Nadu
settlements (see Ganesh & Arumugam 2016).
This is a burrowing snake, like all others of its family and resting
individuals have been observed under fallen logs, rocks and stones and have
also been dug out during active searches.
It is active during night time when the individuals forage out on to
land, but was once sighted outside soil surface at 11.00h in a closed canopy
forest on a rainy day. A young one (SVL:
70mm) was sighted in July. The new
species inhabits evergreen and semi-evergreen forests covering the hill tops
and, also, marginally cultivated habitats such as coffee and cardamom
plantations. It has never been recorded
within other modified monocultures such as pineapple, tapioca, eucalyptus, and
silver oak (Ganesh & Arumugam 2016).
The new species is regularly killed by vehicular traffic on the ghat roads as attested by the type specimens that are
comprised of road kills, especially during the monsoons (June–September). This is a potentially threatened species as
its entire geographic range that covers only a single hill range, is outside
any protected area network and is undergoing a continual onslaught of
anthropogenic pressures resulting in population declines (see Ganesh &
Arumugam 2015).
Comparisons and Differential diagnosis: The new species is here compared with all 24
recognized species of Uropeltis (see Pyron et
al. 2016; Jins et al. 2018). By having a thickened, circumscribed, concave
caudal disc Uropeltis rajendrani
sp. nov. clearly differs from the following 14
species: U. bhupathyi, U. ellioti,
U. nitida, U. grandis, U. aculate, U. dindigalensis, U. beddomei, U. macroryncha, U. woodmasoni, U. broughami, U. aculate, U. petersi, U. liura, and U. pulneyensis. Further, Uropeltis
rajendrani sp. nov.
also differs from the remaining congeners (after Gower et al. 2008; Ganesh et
al. 2014) with a thickened, circumscribed, caudal shield categorized under Smith’s
(1943) Group II A & B as follows (only opposing suite of character states
listed): U. arcticeps (southern Western
Ghats): dorsal scales lacking a clearly defined yellow scale border; ventral
scale counts much lower (127–128); U. bicatenata (northern
Western Ghats): yellowish scalloping chain-like pattern across both sides of
the body; U. broughami (southern Western
Ghats): 19 midbody scale rows; rostral scale much produced and ridged with a
dorsal keel; dorsum brown with distinct small, yellow-black-edged transverse
ocelli; ventral scale counts higher (181–230); U. ceylanica
s. auct. (Western Ghats): anterior dorsum without
distinct yellow spots; venter lacking a clearly defined brownish scale border;
ventral scale counts much lower (119–146; 130 in holotype – Gower et al. 2008);
U. macrolepis complex (northern Western
Ghats): 15 midbody scale rows; lower ventral scale counts (128–140); dorsum
blackish-brown with yellow broken spots forming zig-zag crossbars or annuli or
a pair of distinct, thick, yellowish-orange paravertebral stripes extending
across most of the body except near neck, where there are two large orange
spots; U. madurensis
(southern Western Ghats): dorsal scales with a clearly defined yellow scale
border; U. myhendrae (southern Western Ghats):
dorsum with brownish-black body, each scale with yellowish posterior border
forming more or less complete band or annuli; part of rostral visible from
above distinctly longer than its distance from frontal; ventral scales
comparatively lower (139–156); U. phipsoni (northern
Western Ghats): a pair of yellowish lateral streaks along both sides of the
body; part of rostral visible from above distinctly longer than its distance
from the frontal; ventral scales comparatively lower (138–157); U. rubromaculata (southern Western Ghats): presence of two
large red caudal spots; much higher ventral counts (127–136); U. rubrolineata (southern Western Ghats): presence of two
ventrolateral red stripes; much higher ventral counts (165–172); U. shorttii (southern Eastern Ghats, allopatric): dorsal
body brownish or bluish-black, with distinct yellowish annuli or crossbars;
ventral counts comparatively lower (141–156).
Discussion
Uropeltis rajendrani sp. nov. is the 25th
species in the genus Uropeltis to be
described. It is the second recently
described species in this genus (after U. bhupathyi
Jins et al., 2018) as well as from this hill complex
(after Rhinophis goweri
Aengals & Ganesh, 2013). This finding of undocumented diversity of
uropeltid snakes from the southern Eastern Ghats is in agreement with the
discovery of R. goweri by Aengals
& Ganesh (2013) and the revival of U. shorttii
(Beddome, 1863) by Ganesh et al. (2014). The new species is sympatric with R. goweri and is allopatric with U. shorttii
that is endemic to a northerly massif—the Shevaroys
(see Ganesh et al. 2014; Ganesh & Arumugam 2016). Taxonomically, this population was discovered
only recently and has been previously referred to as Uropeltis
cf. ceylanica by Ganesh & Arumugam (2016). This is in contrast with description of U.
bhupathyi as it is a long-known taxon, but
misrepresented as U. ellioti sensu lato (see Jins et al. 2018).
Massifs in the southern Eastern Ghats contain disjunct, elevated
(1,400m) hill ranges. This provides an
ideal setting for the evolution of a distinct assemblage of hill forest
herpetofauna in the upper reaches, as has been discovered by Ganesh &
Arumugam (2016) and Ganesh et al. (2018).
Precisely, the Kolli Hill complex, is an
emerging center of reptile endemism as exemplified by
the finding of other range-restricted reptiles such as the new geckoes Hemiphyllodactylus kolliensis
and Hemidactylus kolliensis
(see Agarwal et al. 2019a,b), apart from the pioneering discovery of Rhinophis goweri by
Aengals & Ganesh (2013) previously, from the same
general area. Uropeltis
rajendrani sp. nov.
thus joins an increasing array of point-endemic vertebrates restricted to the Kolli massif complex. This new discovery underscores the
need for research and conservation attention to the Kolli
Hill complex, and the southern Eastern Ghats in general.
For
figure & images - - click here
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Appendix 1. List of preserved voucher
specimens studied
Uropeltis ceylanica: MAD no number from Perambikulam;
another unnumbered specimen from Cochin; MAD 1938 from Attikan
(Mysore) E. Barne’s collection, from ca. 1,500m, in
June 1938; more unnumbered specimens, from Nilgiris,
Cochin and Travancore; CESS 092 from Pakshipathalam, Bramgiri, Kannur District, Kerala; CESS 281, from Coorg, Madikeri District, Karnataka.
Uropeltis dindigalensis: MAD no number from Sirumalai,
Madura District.
Uropeltis ellioti: CESS 079, from Chemmunji, Peppara WS, Trivandrum District, Kerala; CSPT/S-81 from Shevaroys, Salem District, Tamil Nadu.
Uropeltis grandis: MAD no number from Anamalai,
Coimbatore District.
Uropeltis liura: CSPT/S-3, 2 e.g., from Madurai Hills, Madurai
District, Tamil Nadu.
Uropeltis maculata: CESS186 from Anaimudi
Shola NP, Idukki District, Kerala; MAD no number from Anamalai,
Coimbatore District.
Uropeltis madurensis: CSPT/S-6, 1 e.g. from High Wavys,
Theni District, Tamil Nadu.
Uropeltis myhendrae: CSPT/S-5, 1 e.g. from Vannathipparai,
Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu.
Uropeltis nitida: CESS408 from Nelliampathy
RF, Palghat District, Kerala.
Uropeltis cf.
ocellata: MAD no number from Perambikulam;
more unnumbered specimens from Cochin and Kodaikanal,
Palni Hills.
Uropeltis petersi: CSPT/S-7a 1 e.g. from Kodaikanal,
Dindigul District, Tamil Nadu.
Uropeltis pulneyensis: MAD 1929 6 e.g., collected by E. Barnes, during
April-May, from 1,800–2,040 m, Kodaikanal, Palni hills; CSPT/S-4a, 1 e.g. from Kodaikanal,
Dindigul District, Tamil Nadu.
Uropeltis rubromaculata: MAD no number from Anamalai,
Coimbatore district; CSPT/S-7 from Anaimalai,
Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu; CESS 322, from Anaimalai
WLS, Tirupur District, Tamil Nadu.
Uropeltis shorttii: CSPT/S-80, 2 e.g. from Shevaroy
Hills, Salem District, Tamil Nadu.
Uropeltis woodmasoni: CSPT/S-4, 1 e.g. from Anaimalai,
Coimbatore District, Tamil Nadu.